The Hunter, The Hunted
by docturlough
Summary: The Na'vi legends of the Yautja come to life as a banished Predator is sent to Pandora. I'm not sure about the title, if you guys like it, I'll keep it, but if not, I'm open to suggestions. Rated M for violence.
1. The Woodsprite Storm

_If this is Avatar VS Predator, does that make it AVP?_

…..

After the humans had abandoned Pandora, Jake and Neytiri thought all would be well. They were made the leaders of the clan, with Mo'at, Neytiri's mother as spiritual leader and Tsu'Tey as their military advisor. They lived in harmony for two whole years, every day consulting with scouts and Mo'at about the ever-present threat of more sky-people.

In the dead of night, while the entire clan was resting in their hammocks, with Neytiri in Jake's arms, the woodsprites sensed a great trouble and flooded, like a plague of earth locusts, into the branches of the hometree. They raced through the air, waking every member of the tribe, the cries of children spread through the suspended dwellings and the responsibility was Jake's to find out what was going on. Jake knew his hometree like the back of his hand, and leapt into the haze of moving shapes without fear. A branch rose out of the haze to meet him, and he leapt from it into the air, closing his eyes and letting ehywa guide him, he somersaulted, flipped and leapt his way from branch to branch, trying to reach the main chamber, located in the hollow trunk of the hometree.

What met his eyes was horrifying. Mo'at stood in the very centre of the hometree, the woodsprites spiralling around her like a hurricane, she looked haggard, almost skeletal, and her face was showing the years she had endured, in her hand she clutched a T'sevewey cane. A cane all spiritual leaders possessed which was adorned by one trophy and one drop of blood from every spiritual leader since the dawn of the tribe. It is to be kept in a hidden place, chosen and known only by the spiritual leaders and only to be told in the last moments of life. Taking it from its hidden place without proper need was an offence punishable by exile and banishment from the kingdom of eywa. This was not one of those times. Mo'at appeared to be conjuring the woodsprites with the cane, reciting a chant that Jake had never heard in his second life. He rushed through the woodsprites and grabbed Mo'at by the shoulders. As soon as contact was made, the woodsprites dispersed, revealing the entire clan standing around them, watching the scene unfolding. Neytiri broke from the crowd and rushed to Jake's side.

"Mother? Mother, what happened?"

The haze in Mo'at's eyes cleared and she focused on her daughter, a fear creeping into the sides of her face as the colour drained.

"Yautja, the Yautja are coming, and they are coming to hunt!"

Mo'at collapsed then and the fear in Neytiri's eyes during those first seconds could was something Jake would never forget. His heart bled and cried for his mate, and then he heard the faintest sound in his ultra-sensitive ears, Mo'at's heartbeat. The entire tribe heard it at once and a single woodsprite descended on Mo'at's chest, pulsating in rhythm with her heartbeats. Mo'at's assistant medicine woman rushed forward with a cup of herbal tea for the sick Na'vi. As Neytiri helped her into her adorned throne, and that lone woodsprite stayed near her no matter what.

It was a long and tense night for Jake and Neytiri, and as the dawn bled past the floating mountains on the horizon, Neytiri made her way back to her and Jake's bed. Jake stood to meet her, holding her in his arms.

"How is she?" He whispered softly in her ear.

"She will live. But her sleep is filled with the nightmares only the spirit leader can have."

Jake held her at arms length and looked into her eyes. "What do you mean?"

Neytiri's chest heaved with a sigh, "When the sky people came down, all tribes fled in fear of them being the most destructive creatures of our nightmares, the Yautja. They are unseen shapes one moment, simply cuts that appear, but when damaged they reveal themselves as armoured demon's, with weapons even more advanced than your peoples. They destroyed three Toruk and many more Ikran before wiping out an entire tribe in moments."

Jake had never seen such fear in her eyes as when she spoke of these monsters, her fear now was matched only by her fear of her mothers state hours ago, clearly this was a traumatic night for her.

"But," She continued "As you gathered all tribes to battle the sky people, my grandfather gathered them to battle the Yautja. And they did so, but in doing so, my grandfather lost his life on the back of his Toruk."

Jake lay with her until she fell asleep, and by then it was late morning. Jake crawled out of his dwelling and to each of his brothers and sisters', waking each of them as quietly as he could and summoning them to the hollow centre of the hometree. As soon as all the men and women were gathered, Jake told them all of what had happened.

"I may be much newer to this tribe than many of you, but you have stood by me before, and it is with a heavy heart I call on you again. These creatures of nightmare have been prophesised to come again, and I say it will not be like the humans, we will not wait until they have destroyed our hometree before we go on the offensive, we attack soon!" The crowd roared and he called Tsu'Tey to his right hand side, and spoke to him in private. "I have need of you, my friend. I want you to arrange four of the best archers in the clan."

As soon as the four archers were arranged, Jake climbed to the top of the hometree and prayed to eywa for the help of his oldest ally. From below, he heard cries of terror and surprise, and he dropped below to find his prayer answered. On the rim of the main chamber stood his Toruk, or _last shadow_, the creature that had fought with him in his final battle against the humans. Jake petted the beast's head lovingly and connected his ponytail with its, telling it what he required of it, and pleading with in to understand. The creature bowed in response and Jake put his forehead to its and closed his eyes.

"Thank you, my friend." Jake stepped down from the Toruk and ordered the women of the tribe to outfit the Turok with all the garbs needed in case any of them were injured, he then ordered the medicine-makers to prepare healing oils and waters for their return. He then requested that two of the archers summon their Ikran. The other two were to prepare their makeup and weapons, as must Tsu'Tey, for the hunt was soon to begin.

….

In the night Mo'at had had her attack, a metal pod was launched into Pandora's atmosphere. Since their defeat at the hands of the Na'vi little over half a century ago, the Yautja considered Pandora a death-trap, with people too powerful to be hunted yet, so they trained endlessly for when next they would face the Na'vi. They had not reached the level needed for the hunt yet, so Pandora was still a death-trap.

And it was with this in mind that the Yautja council had sent a banished hunter, Blade, was sent in a prison pod with only a spear, his wrist-blades, and his shoulder cannon and two vibro-disks, to hunt the unhuntable and to die by their hand, or kill enough of them to be allowed to call the Yautja home planet and deem the planet a hunting ground again. As the pod crashed to earth and the Yautja emerged, his mask analysed the atmosphere and acceptable places to hide within a few kilometres of his position, and as he realised what he had been sentenced to, he tore of his facemask and roared into the night, causing the woodsprites to flee in a blind panic.


	2. Hunter's Mouth

**Authors Note: **_I'd like to humbly thank everyone for their reviews and favourites, every one motivates me to write, though I do sometimes forget. Nevertheless, I'd like to remind you all to review, because without your reviews, this series will never continue. Probably._

_In an interesting side note, the Yautja, Blade, from this story is the same Yautja as the one in my other Aliens/Predator story, The Arena, a crossover with Starship Troopers. In that story he's quite young, barely a pup, but by this one, he's quite old. Look at me an' my continuity!_

…_..._

It was the next morning that the forest fire started.

The Yautja pod burst into flames, which swallowed the forest around it, the fire a dark green with various chemicals burning beneath them. Jakes tribes new hometree was roughly 30 miles away from the drop zone, and at around 20 miles, there stood...

"Hunter's Mouth..." Tsu'Tey breathed.

The huge crevasse that separated the now smouldering forest from them was legendary amongst the Na'vi, simply because of its threatening appearance and common uses in their horror stories. The valley itself was half a mile across, grey and barren stone led into black shadows, nobody knew what lay down there. It was however, the trees that grew next to the gorge that gave it its most striking characteristic. The white, spiny, leafless trees stretched out towards the air, as if clasping at a falling companion, from the air, they gave the crevasse the appearance of a malicious, grinning mouth.

They approached it solemnly, half of their archer team flying above them, as well as a medicine woman, flying on Jakes outfitted _Turok. _The other two archers were lead by Jake and Tsu'Tey on foot, they had their bows in their hands and quivers of poisoned arrows on their backs. Tsu'Tey carried a heavy club, a blunt, but pointed rock, tied to a strong stick. Jake, having spent his first life in the Marines, carried a weapon liberated from the humans during their final battle. They all wore knives on their belts, meticulously sharpened and shaped to move with the air, and slice through meat and bone with ease.

"How do you suppose we get across?" One of the archers piped up.

Jake thought about this for a second. He was never much of a tactics man, usually, he was just a grunt, which is why he had appointed Tsu'Tey as his military advisor. He looked to him now, for his well-respected and time-tested judgement.

"We hail the _Ikran_ riders. They will ferry us across." Tsu'Tey said with iron confidence. He never spoke until he had considered every possibility.

Taking the _Ikran _riders was a risk. The reason they had travelled in two groups was so that one could always cover the other, and by bunching together, it would leave them with no backup in the event of an ambush. But it was a risk they had to take. And Tsu'Tey leaped into the winding ivory branches, climbing to signal the riders. For just a second, out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw a branch move, and his hand instinctively went for his club, now strapped to his back. But when he stopped and heard no sounds, he moved on.

Now, Tsu'Tey was raised as a Na'vi, and so he knew the legends of the Yautja very well. So he considered the strange branch as a sign. As he climbed further, the pearly cords of the trees became more scarce, until he could see rays of sunlight trickling through. It was at this precise, calculated second, that Tsu'Tey pulled on the knot at his chest, which was holding his club on his back. The Yautja lunged at him, as he had expected, silent, deadly, knowing. But he gripped his club and swung in the direction of a disturbance in the trees, clouting the Yautja across what sounded like the armoured face of legend.

Branches snapped beneath him as the Yautja fell, and when they stopped, he prepared for a second assault. Two yellow eyes flashed in the trees to intimidate him, and the Yautja was leaping again. Tsu'Tey dropped from the trees and ululated loudly, but he could not see, nor judge, where in the air the Yautja was, so when he was rammed into from his side, he didn't expect it at all. He was flung through the trees, their hard, snapping branches whipping and breaking under his weight, until the Yautja let him go and he fell a few more feet.

When his hazy vision cleared, Jake and the archers were at his side. Jake waved his hand and the archers stayed, loading their bows and scanning the trees for any sign of their enemy. Jake moved efficiently through the trees, noting, not for the first time, the strength in his legs. He climbed without the use of his hands, which gripped his rifle intensely. He reached the same level as Tsu'Tey, who was now only 20 paces away. He made a last movement with his weapon, scanning the area, before he started to walk to the unconscious Na'vi.

He reached his comrade and shook him gently, Tsu'Tey stirred, and woke, smiling at his chief, who smiled the same. Suddenly, a spear burst through the branch between them, and Tsu'Tey was falling. Jake leaped after him, and when Tsu'Tey was snatched out of the air by an unseen hand, Jake calculated his enemy's position and slammed into the Yautja's back, using his knees to push the Hunter further.

Jake reached out and grabbed a branch, then let his chest-strap hold his rifle as he reached for Tsu'Tey, but he was too late, and his friend was pulled away to a branch parallel to Jake's own. There was a ripple in the air, and a hand came into view, holding onto Tsu'Tey's wrist. Silver armour and clothes of net, leather and fur covered greying, strong skin.

The Yautja's helmet was dented slightly in the face, from Tsu'Tey's club. But more dents and scratches covered the emblazoned mask, including a mark under the creature's eye, which looked like it had been burned there by some sort of acid, it had dreadlocks, the rings in them showing that they were once kept meticulously in order, but now they were greying, unkempt, and untamed. Trophy skulls and pelts of species Jake couldn't begin to name hung from the Yautja's belts, existing only to intimidate opponents.

Jake registered this in a moment, as the Marines had taught him, then sprang at his opponent, taking his knife from it's sheath and firing blindly into the air, to signal all the archer's he had brought with him.

Tsu'Tey saw the call to arms and gripped the Yautja's wrist, pulling himself up to kick the alien in the chest. He was free, and reaching for his own knife. Jake landed behind the Yautja, while Tsu'Tey faced it. They all stood there for a second. The Yautja regarding his enemies with interest. When an arrow zoomed past its head, it didn't react in the slightest, simply sprung two serrated blades from it's wrist and swung at Jake.

Jake leaped back, and Tsu'Tey moved in to compensate, his foot aiming for the Yautja's hip. The Yautja turned, and gripped his ankle, then spun him towards Jake. Jake managed to jump back again, but was fast running out of branch, and when Tsu'Tey hit his wrist, he was more focused on keeping his balance, and so lost his knife.

Tsu'Tey was thrown through the trees again, but gripped blindly for something to hold. Twice the hard ivory wood smashed the bones in his hand, until, his fingers barely gripping, he swung around one and was able to face his quarry again.

Jake gripped his rifle and began firing at the Yautja, which dodged his bullets efficiently. It dropped from the branch, and, like an earth Gorilla, swung on it, right under Jake's feet. It swung up to meet him again, and Jake blocked it's blades with the stock of his rifle. The Yautja, never to be taken unawares, had prepared for this, and slipped in close, just nicking the leather of Jake's strap before Tsu'Tey collided with him, sending him flying over the edge.

Suddenly, Tsu'Tey was in single combat with his alien nightmare. Only he and the predator existed, as they swung blades at each other, each blocking and ducking with expert skill. He would use his dexterity and agility to move freely around the branch, while the Yautja stood fast, attempting to block the arrows that the archer's continued to fire on him mercilessly.

He leaped past the Yautja's angered stab, and moved in for one of his own, intending to break leather and flesh and end the ageing monstrosity. But he stabbed too strong, and when the predator's twin blades caught his, they had ample space to slice through the wooden handle as though it were tender meat.

The Yautja gained the upper hand, and it moved it's leg behind Tsu'Tey's. It grabbed the Na'vi's flailing arm, and pulled him close. All went silent but for a prevailing whistle as a weapon on the Yautja's shoulder fired. Tsu'Tey turned to see Jake narrowly jump out of the way of a ball of blue fire. The shock of Jake's landing caused his strap to break, and the rifle fell through the air, bouncing between branches. Hunter's Mouth swallowed the last of the Sky-People's technology.

While he was registering his chief's danger, a sharp, shooting pain brought him back to his own fight. He looked to his shoulder, and there, sticking out a good two feet, was an ornately made Na'vi arrow. Beside his head, the Yautja growled low. The poison began to cloud Tsu'Tey's mind fast, but he knew the concept of using another as a shield, and he thought of his opponent's ingenuity as he fell, his body going slowly numb.

He had stumbled off the branch, but something held him in mid air. Was he flying? It felt like it, the wild abandon, the lack of feeling, he felt so very free in the air, he hoped he would get to sail it again. Somewhere, a million miles away, he heard Jake shout his name. A tinge of regret sparked in him, then faded just as fast. All feeling faded, all thought, all awareness. He was going blank.

The Yautja growled, keeping eye contact with Jake Sully. His blade moved further into Tsu'Tey's scalp, drawing purple blood. He was holding the Na'vi warrior by his ponytail, it's tendrils drifting listlessly in their poison haze.

Jake's yellow eye's widened. He couldn't move, couldn't jump, had no weapons, and the archer's fire had ceased after they had put no less than three arrows into the Yautja's shield, Tsu'Tey. There was another low growl, and Jake breathed, shallow.

"No..."

With a quick movement, the Yautja cut off Tsu'Tey's ponytail, and Jake's friend fell through the air, his eyes closed peacefully. Time slowed down for Jake, he saw the Yautja turn and run, it's new trophy attached to his belt. He saw one last branch stand between Tsu'Tey and Hunter's Mouth, and it was little resistance. Tsu'Tey disappeared.

The Yautja jumped from branch to branch, moving out of the Hunter's fabled, tangled teeth. It gained momentum, and before it could make it's finishing jump to the other side, an archer on his _Ikran_ swung down to meet it.

The Yautja jumped regardless, his wrist-blades springing into action once again. The archer fired, and the poison tip of the arrow dragged across the Yautja's side before disappearing into the trees.

The alien landed in a roll on the _Ikran's_ back, almost losing it's balance. It leaped at the Na'vi archer, and kicked his bow in two before he could reload. The archer drew a blade, and swung at the air, while the Yautja ducked low. It swung for the Na'vi, but the poison was fast overpowering it. It was now acutely aware of the medi-pack on it's belt. It couldn't apply it here, it would need time, space.

The Yautja swung once more at the archer, moving around him. It kicked the _Ikran_ in the neck and the huge, blue beast banked hard. Both it's passengers almost lost their balance, but Na'vi feet were made to hold their grip, and the Yautja held on through sheer force of will.

As the _Ikran_ moved, all too fast, towards the sharp grey rocks of the cliff face, the Yautja weapon flared up and fired again, scaring away the animal. The Yautja leaped off, moving under the torrent of crumbling rocks he had caused, into a cave. The rocks sealed up the cave entrance, and the _Ikran_ flew away, frightened, it's pilot desperately struggling for control.

Jake had looked on throughout the whole thing.


End file.
